What can happen in the privacy of a hotel room? Anything and everything, if you check into the Hotel China, a brilliant new collection of short fiction set in a hotel in the heart of Hong Kong’s historic and notorious Wan Chai district.

Written by some of Hong Kong’s finest authors, these twenty-six tales follow the exploits of the hotel’s patrons and staff as they navigate the city’s distractions and hazards in pursuit of their goals, be they love, money ... or even murder!

Journalists, businessmen, grifters and prostitutes rub shoulders with cleaners, doormen and bell-boys: each story is as individual as the characters that inspire them. And behind them all stands Hong Kong itself, the glittering reception hall for the political and economic powerhouse of China today.

The stories are written by members of the Hong Kong Writers Circle, a cooperative of authors living and working in the city and whose varied backgrounds and heritage reflect the cultural diversity of Hong Kong itself.

China today is ruled by a party-state totalitarian dictatorship. That is the conclusion of Stein Ringen’s thoughtful and careful analysis in his new book The Perfect Dictatorship. It is a conclusion... [ Read full review ]